CD*NY dancers know Yonina Gordon in three guises, as caller of both contras and English dances and as a morris and sword dancer. No wonder! Yonina inherited dancing genes from her folk dancing parents, grew up folk dancing, then discovered American contra and English Country dancing in 1982. It wasn't long before she had branched out into morris, joining Ring O'Bells in October '85.
It was Yonina's experience dancing the number one "captain's" position in the morris set that led her to calling. This dancer calls the figures to prompt the other five dancers, and, Yonina says, "since prompting is an important part of being a caller/teacher, I had a feeling that I would be able to call."
Her first dance teaching experience was teaching Israeli folk dancing at Camp Shomria, outside Liberty, New York, run by Hashomer Hatzair, a Socialist-Zionist youth organization. She got started with contras at Pinewoods at American Dance and Music Week in 1986, at a caller's workshop given by Michael McKernon and Applejack. By then she was so at ease with prompting that her only difficulty was getting accustomed to using the mike. "Michael had to stand with his hand behind my head to hold it in one spot so my voice didn't waver in and out." At the end of the week, she represented the caller's workshop at show and tell. Encouraged by Leah Barkan, she called a dance at the next open mike Alpine dance, took a contra caller's workshop with Brad Foster in New York, and was on her way. She was booked to call her first full evening on April 29, 1989. Yonina has also composed about a dozen contras.
For English dancing, Yonina apprenticed in spring 1993 to work with Christine Helwig while she was still an active teacher for CD*NY. She also worked with Paul Ross, Bertha Hatvary, and Beverly Francis. Yonina has been a full-fledged teacher of English at CD*NY since fall '95. In 1997 and again in 1999, Yonina was Mistress of Ceremonies at the annual Playford Ball with Gene Murrow.
Yonina discovered
morris dancing when Ring O'Bells did a demonstration
at a contra dance in 1984, and she soon joined the team,
the oldest women's morris team in North America.
She has been foreman, or teacher, for three years
and previously was squire for eight years. The team
dances the traditions of
Ascott-Under-Wychwood, Brackley, and
Ilmington. Yonina has composed three dances in the
Ascott style. She also dances rapper and longsword
with Half Moon Sword,
which she joined in 1988, and she has been a
member of New World Sword
since 1998. Yonina traveled to England with Ring O'Bells
in 1987 and with Half Moon Sword several times.
In 1991 and 1998 the team was booked at the Sidmouth
International Festival of Folk Arts.
Yonina now calls contras for most of the metropolitan area groups: Swingin' Tern, Princeton Country Dancers, LITMA, and Round Hill. She has also called at the Heritage Folk Festival, NOMAD, and in '93, '94, '97, and '99 at NEFFA. In addition to her regular English calling at CD*NY, Yonina has done dances for the Albany Country Dancers, LITMA, Woodstock, New York, and CD*NY Alpine dances. In summer 2001, Yonina was on staff at Pinewoods, teaching rapper and longsword at the Boston Centre's English-Scottish Session, and rapper and longsword at English Dance Week.
Yonina was a member of
the CDSS New York
Dance Activities Committee, and of the CD*NY board, serving as secretary and also as editor of "Stepnotes" for several years. In April 2000, Yonina began a three-year term as a member at large of the Governing Board of CDSS. Yes, in her other life, Yonina is an editor for Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.
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